When she worked as a fundraising consultant for U.S. Rep. James P. McGovern in the mid-2000s, Sheila Burgess was considered highly effective at her job, and the congressman remains unapologetic about recommending her for a state job. She was removed from her state job as highway safety director this week after her poor driving record was exposed.

In 2007, when Ms. Burgess was looking for a job in the new Democratic administration of Gov. Deval L. Patrick and Lt. Gov. Timothy P. Murray, Mr. McGovern recommended her, though Mr. McGovern's spokesman says it was not for the $87,000-a-year safety post or any other specific position.

Ms. Burgess, 48, burst into the news Sunday, when The Boston Globe reported that her driving record includes seven accidents, four speeding violations, and two failures to stop for a police officer. Ms. Burgess has 34 entries on her driving record dating to 1982, the Globe reported.

The longtime political consultant and fundraiser — who is on medical leave with a reported serious head injury after she drove her state-issued car off the road in Milton Aug. 24 — was quickly removed from the highway safety job for which she was hired in 2007 partly on Mr. McGovern's recommendation.

When Mr. Patrick ran for governor for the first time in 2006, Mr. McGovern was the first major elected official in the state to endorse him in a crowded Democratic primary field.

Michael Mershon, the McGovern spokesman, said Ms. Burgess was a top-notch fundraiser and the congressman does not regret recommending her.

“In effect, it was a job reference,” Mr. Mershon said. “She was looking for work in state government with the incoming administration. The administration has said that this job is not the best fit for her and (Mr. McGovern) agrees with that.”

But, Mr. Mershon said, “people who work on political campaigns, and who work really hard, should not automatically be disqualified from working in government.”

A person who answered the phone Monday at Ms. Burgess' home in Randolph said: “We're not taking any calls right now.”

The relationship between Mr. McGovern and Ms. Burgess goes back to her years from 1991 to 2001 as a fundraiser and campaign manager for the late Boston congressman, J. Joseph Moakley, for whom Mr. McGovern was a top aide before he was elected to Congress in 1996.

Three Central Massachusetts Republican lawmakers called on Monday for Ms. Burgess to be fired, as did an editorial in the Globe Tuesday.

However, Terrel Harris, a spokesman for the state Department of Public Safety and Security, said state officials still plan to reassign Ms. Burgess to another state job, though she is on indefinite medical leave.

Mr. Mershon said it is clear to anyone who has talked with Ms. Burgess recently that she suffered a serious head injury.

According to the campaign finance records, SBH Consulting was paid $151,639 by Mr. McGovern's political committee for the 2002 election cycle. The firm, of which she was a principal, was the highest-paid vendor among all of the congressman's payment recipients in that election cycle.

During the 2004 cycle, Mr. McGovern paid the Mass. Strategy Group, of which Ms. Burgess was also a principal, $88,692, and SBH, $79,687. In 2006, the congressman paid $120,634 to SBH; and for the 2008 cycle, $30,199.

Mr. Murray, a former Worcester mayor and close ally of Mr. McGovern, also used the Mass. Strategy Group when he ran for mayor in 2003, and again in 2004, paying the firm a total of $17,414, the Globe reported.

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